NOTE FROM MODERATOR: Done.
Rick Masters: Dangerous Thoughts
Rick Masters has begun assembling a series of gripping hang glider stories in a section titled "Rick Masters: Dangerous Thoughts". They are still works in progress, but they span Rick's decades in hang gliding.
Here are some samples from the 1980's:
1981
It was never enough for him just to feel the wind. No, he would jump the ridge and leave. I'd stay and descend. Then hours later, I'd hear his voice on the phone, Saying, "Hey, Rick! I'm stranded out here and I'm all alone. And I'm miles away, where nobody's ever flown!"
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1982
George was ecstatic. He'd been playing with the idea of an ultralight soaring contest for years, but the development of capable aircraft had taken so long. But now -- Yes! -- the time was ripe. The Mitchell Wing in its various forms, the Minibat, the Delta Nomad -- those were soaring ultralights, not just hang gliders with engines bolted on. And there was that new ship, the one he'd just seen in Porterville. It was a beautiful, efficient design with a prop that hid in the cantilever wing. His friend Tasso Proppe called it a quantum leap ahead of the fabulous Mitchell Wing.
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1983
He'd done well. Very well. He was 114 miles from gusty Gunter launch, riding some of the smoothest air he'd ever flown, pushed along by a marvelous tailwind and averaging nearly 50 mph above the desolate Paradise Range of central Nevada. If he could just reach the Toiyabe mountains across the next valley, he would ride the thermal lift they generated to a new world distance record!
Without warning, the glider rolled upside down and his suspension lines went slack.
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1984
Don Partridge died as I climbed out of bed.
Of course, I didn't know.
The day looked great outside the windows, the sky crisp and mile-high blue with no sign of the early cloud development along the Owens Valley mountain ranges that had plagued our cross country attempts for the past few weeks.ÂÂ
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1985
I raced Naomi Fujita north along the Sierra. The Moyen appears superior to the Glidezilla. I reached 15,000' over Birch Mt. Got to Black Mt. with 8500' but I couldn't get over the top.
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1986
I was third off launch after Steve Moyes. I stayed high and slow for a change. I crossed the valley from Mt. Tinnemaha with 16,000'. A thermal NW of Big Pine took me to 16,000' again but I lost everything and thermalled up the south spine of Black Mountain low. I caught one on the side of Coldwater Canyon and worked up Paiute to about 21,000' from 6200'. I left Boundary at 14:00 with 20.000'.ÂÂ
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1987
In 1984 I was fascinated to discover that the world's most accomplished cross country hang glider pilot, Larry Tudor, was sensitive to small changes in the temperature of the air he felt on his face. Sensing small increments in temperature, he frequently tracked warm bands of lift along the crest of shears. Could the ability to sense these small changes in temperature be a factor in Tudor's consistantly stunning performances? I was determined to find out.
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